SB 741 
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FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 1 

TKER IN THE GULF COAST COUNTRY, WITH NOTES 
N THE EXTENT OF CITRUS CULTURE IN 
THE LOCALITIES VISITED 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

When no longer any reasonable doubt 
remained but that a new citrus disease 
had made its appearance in Florida, that 
at least one infection had been sent to 
us from Texas, and specimens were re- 
ceived from Alabama, it seemed pertinent, 
this spring, that some one should make a 
visit to the Gulf Coast country for the 
purpose of getting some idea of the dis- 
tribution and seriousness of this new dis- 
ease. Efforts to elicit definite information 
by correspondence had failed, as no one 
seemed to know anything definite about 
it. When the writer broached the desira- 
bility of such a visit before the State 
Boai-d of Control at their meeting in 
March, it .became at once a foregone con- 
clusion that he would be sent to make the 
investigation. 

To better bring the situation before 
you, this brief recapitulation is inserted 
here: The new disease, now known as 
citrus canker, had been discovered in two 
far separated localities in Florida. Near 
Monticello in West Florida, the writer 
had found it in about 20,000 small nur- 
sery trees consisting of some satsuma and 
pomelo on C. T. (citrus trifoliata) roots 
and some C. T. stock. Near Silver Palm, 
south Dade County, Mr. E. V. Blackman, 
Deputy Inspector in that county, had dis- 
covered it in about 20,000 pomelo and 
some oranges, all on sour roots, with ap- 



ErlV. Berger 

proximately another 80,000 trees more or 
less exposed to the infection. This was 
all nursery stock. Suffice it to state here 
that certificates, permitting any of this 
stock to be sold, were promptly withheld, 
and treatment recommended, thus practi- 
cally placing the infected stock in quaran- 
tine. In each instance the information 
then available was to the effect that the 
seedlings used for roots had come from 
Texas. This proved true, however, only 
for the sour seedlings used at Silver Palm, 
which came from Port Arthur, Texas. A 
recent letter from J. H. Giradeau, Jr., for- 
merly a nurseryman at Monticello, states 
that he imported the C. T. seedlings, used 
at Mbnticello. directly from Japan, about 
February, 19 10. 

Leaving Gainesville, Florida, on the 
morning of Miarch 14th, the afternoon 
was spent at Monticello to again look 
over the situation there. The places visit- 
ed in other states were Auburn, ^Mobile 
and Grand Bay, Alabama; Biloxi, Gulf- 
port and Wiggins, ^.lississippi; New Or- 
leans and Happy Jack, Louisiana; Port 
Arthur, Noma, Alvin, Brownsville, Mc- 
Allen and San Benito, Texas ; and Mata- 
moras, ^lexico. 



AL.VBAMA 

At the Board of Trade rooms in :Mo- 
bile, the writer was informed that one and 
one-half million trees had been planted 



C-^<1A\ 



FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



during this season on something over 
13,000 acres, in the vicinity of Mobile, 
Grand Bay and other places. 

Along the L. & N. Ry., toward Gi'and 
Bay, one sees creditable plantings here 
and there, ranging from a few acres to 
perhaps 20 or 30. At Grand Bay the 
acreage must be estimated by the hun- 
dred. These trees are all on C. T. roots 
and consist primarily of satsuma, with 
some pomelo and sweet orange. The 
oldest plantings appear to be 4 or 5 years 
old. 

The fact that two nursery companies 
from Florida, the Griffing Brothers Com- 
pany, and Miller and Gossard, have each 
established nurseries in Alabama, pres- 
ages something of what the extent of cit- 
rus planting may become. A large part 
of the supply of trees now comes from 
Florida, Mississippi and Texas. 

Seedling trees, whether sweet or sour 
orange, the largest probably 10 to 15 
years old, were visible here and there in 
house yards. Some hardy hybrids were 
the only citrus trees seen at Auburn. 

In Alabama, the writer first stopped at 
Auburn, in order to consult with the Nur- 
sery Inspector and Plant Pathologist of 
the College and Experiment Station. Dr. 
Wolf, Plant Pathologist, had just re- 
turned from the Mobile section with defi- 
nite information as to the extent and lo- 
calities infected. He reported the disease 
at Mobile, Grand Bay, Axis and Fair- 
hope. 

At Mobile and Grand Bay, everything 
that Dr_ Wolf had reported was verified. 
At the shipping grounds of the Saibara 
Nurseries in Mobile, carloads of nursery 



stock, satsuma, pomelo and oranges were 
found. This stock was brought to Mo- 
bile from Alabama, Mississippi and Tex- 
as, to be sold and reshipped. Traces of 
citrus canker were noted in this stock, es- 
pecially on pomelo and satsuma. 

At Grand Bay, citrus canker was in 
evidence in every place visited, in the 
nurseries as well as in the groves. The 
most serious infection occurs in a small 
grove of 1000 grapefruit and satsuma 
trees, known as the Juvenal Grove. The 
oldest trees were planted about two years 
ago. The pomelo in this grove is most in- 
fected and badly crusted with canker on 
the younger growth. It appears that 
these trees are being retarded and forced 
to put out an excessive number of small 
branches which become diseased. Some 
treatment with Bordeaux mixture and de- 
foliation had been made, but apparently 
without much success. No fruit was on 
the trees (March 17th). It should be 
noted here that the illustration of dis- 
eased pomelo (grapefruit) in Bulletin 
122, Florida Experiment Station, came 
from this grove. 

MISSISSIPPI 

Judged by the number of small nurser- 
ies listed for Mississippi that offer citrus 
stock for sale, the extent of planting cit- 
rus in that state must be considerable. 
These are mainly along the line of the L. 
& N. Ry., at such places as Orange Grove, 
Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Biloxi and 
Gulfport. An occasional planting may 
be visible from the railroad. At Biloxi, 
plantings to the extent of perhaps 60 
acres were visited, with presumably hun- 



D. of D. 
AU6:.fl7 1917 



FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



dreds of acres lying farther out. The 
largest planting visited was at Wiggins, 
30 miles north of Gulfport, where thous- 
ands of acres of cut-over pine land are 
being put on the market; there is already 
a new planting of something like 60 
acres and a nursery here. The plantings 
in iVKssissippi are on C. T. roots and con- 
sist mainly of satsuma, with some pomelo 
and sweet orange. A 40-acre grove near 
Biloxi had many satsuma trees over 10 
years old. The oldest trees at Wiggins 
were planted three years ago. 

The writer searched for citrus canker 
only at Biloxi and Wiggins and found it 
only at the latter place. The disease is 
well established there and only the most 
drastic measures will ever succeed in 
eradicating it. The degree of infection of 
different varieties at Wiggins is as fol- 
lows : 

Pomelo — leaves, twigs, fruit ; 

C. T. — Twigs, no leaves or fruit pres- 
ent; 

Navel — leaves, twigs, no fruit noted ; 

Aled. Sweet — noted on leaves only; 



The Lake Shore Land Company, through 
Symmes, Means, and Chandler, agricul- 
tural engineers, is carrying on these 
operations, and plans to set out a large 
acreage of citrus on trifoliata roots. Thir- 
ty thousand budded trees had just been 
planted, besides a nursery of 250,000 tri- 
foliata seedlings, obtained from Arcadia, 
Texas. It is planned to sell this land and 
plantings in small tracts to settlers. 

Below New Orleans, on the Mississippi 
River, considerable citrus has been 
planted. Trees i to 14 or 15 years old 
were seen at Happy Jack. At this point 
the Louisiana Orange Groves Com- 
pany, of which Air. Geo. H. Penn is 
President, has a splendid grove of about 
70 acres^ consisting of sweet oranges, na- 
vels, mandarins, and pomelo. Trees on 
sour orange roots appear to be doing bet- 
ter than trees on trifoliata roots, although 
some splendid trees on the latter roots, 
on better drained land, were in evi- 
dence. Between Happy Jack and New 
Orleans, a particularly fine citrus grove 



Satsuma — leaves, rarely on wood. 

When fruit is mentioned in the previ- 
ous list information was furnished by the 
manager and foreman. The manager 
further informed me that he first noticed 
the disease in 191 1 on C. T. seedlings 
from Japan. 

LOUISIANA 

Near New Orleans, on the south shore 
of Lake Pontchartrain, about 7,000 acres 
of land have been reclaimed by diking. 
Two large pumping stations have been 
erected to pump off the surplus water. 



noted at Naomi. Beyond Happy Jack, 
farther down the river, more extensive 
plantings of citrus were reported. 

Citrus canker was not found at Happy 
Jack. On Lake Pontchartrain it is more 
than likely that it will soon be in evidence. 
At the latter place extensive shipments 
of stock have been received from Texas, 
where citrus canker is common, particu- 
larly the 250,000 trifoliata seedlings 
previously noted. The writer found 
citrus canker on a budded tree from 
Texas, but could not prolong his search 



FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



sufficiently to identify it on the 250,000 
trifoliata seedlings. 

TEXAS 

At Port Arthur and at Nona, 40 miles 
north of Port Arthur, there is an exten- 
sive nursery business consisting largely 
of citrus. Satsumas appear to be the prin- 
cipal variety of citrus planted and these 
do well here. The writer had the privi- 
lege of sampling some satsuma fruit that 
had hung on the trees all winter and 
found it excellent. This was on March 
24th. 

At Alvin and vicinity there are exten- 
sive plantings of satsumas, but some 
oranges, pomelos and lemons, all on tri- 
foliata roots, have also been planted. 
An extensive nursery business, principally 
citrus, is also carried on. On account 
of a heavy rain setting in, only about one- 
half day could be spent here in looking 
about. 

Brownsville, ]\IcAllen and San Benito, 
in Southern Texas, were next visited. Cit- 
rus trifoliata roots fail in this part of 
Texas and sour orange roots are mainly 
employed. Many young citrus trees are 
being planted and the nurseries at Mc- 
Allen and San Benito are prospering. All 
this, notwithstanding the fact that citrus 
in Texas was seriously injured by cold in 
191 1. Sour, bitter-sweet, and other citrus 
seedlings appear to thrive well in Browns- 
ville, and while commercial plantings in 
this part of Texas are generally irrigated, 
seedling trees in house yards at Browns- 
ville thrive without it. In general, it is 
apparent that Texas intends to continue 
in citrus culture. 



At Port Arthur, citrus canker was 
present in the principal nursery there. 
Pomelo, trifoliata, sweet orange, sat- 
suma, mandarin, tangerine, all except 
kumquat, were found infected. Four 
or five oranges, on a sweet orange tree 
capable of bearing several boxes of 
fruit, were found infected with canker. 
One of these oranges had at least a dozen 
cankers on the rind, while the others had 
only two or three. 

No citrus canker was found at Nona, 
although trifoliata seedlings from infect- 
ed territory at Port Arthur had recently 
been planted there. 

At Alvin the disease was found on : 

Duncan pomelo — leaves and twigs ; 

Citrus trifoliata — twigs ; 

Dugat orange — leaves only; 

Villa Franca lemon — leaves and twigs 
(small trees exposed to disease among C. 

T.); 

Ponderosa lemon — leaves (small trees 
exposed to diseases among C. T.) ; 

Kumquats — not found infected. 

To what extent citrus canker is gener- 
ally distributed in the Alvin section was 
not determined, since, as previously stated, 
excessive rains interfered with the 
writer's getting about. 

None of the citrus canker was found 
in south Texas. A full day was spent in- 
specting trees at Brownsville, but only a 
few hours each, between trains, at McAl- 
len and San Benito. Not finding any of 
this disease in south Texas, nor at M'ata- 
moras, Mexico, disposes of the surmise 
that it might have been introduced from 
Mexico. 



FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



MATAMORAS, MEXICO 

Several hours were also spent at Ma- 
tamoras, acrosse the Rio Grande River 
from Brownsville. Several dozen orange 
trees, apparently all sour seedlings, were 
examined about the town, but no citrus 
canker was found. 

VARIETIES INFECTED AND INJURIOUSNESS 

Citrus canker has now been observed 
on the following varieties and species of 
citrus. The order adopted is according 
to the degree of infection observed. 
Pomelo, or grapefruit, is most seriously 
infected and heads the list. When fruit 
or twigs are not mentioned that simply 
indicates that no observations have been 
made : 

Pomelo — leaves, twigs, fruit ; 

C. T. — leaves, twigs; 

Key Lime, or Wild Lime — leaves, 
twigs ; 

Navel — fruit, leaves, twigs; 

Sweet orange — leaves, twigs, fruit; 

Satsuma — leaves, twigs; 

Tangerine — leaves ; 

Mandarin — leaves ; 

King orange — leaves ; 

Lemon — leaves, twigs ; 

Kumquats — appear to be immune. 

The greatest danger from this disease, 
for Florida, lies in the fact that it is prin- 
cipally a pomelo disease. As already 
stated, it attacks the twigs of these trees 
viruently, resulting in a putting out of 
more twigs, thus overloading the trees 
with small branches. It is also virulent in 
the manner in which it affects the leaves, 
spotting them, causing them to turn yel- 



low and dropping prematurely. The 
worst of it, however, is the manner in 
which it affects the fruit. Judging by 
the few fruits that have come under ob- 
servation, it appears safe to estimate that 
at the very least one-half of a grapefruit 
crop would be made unmarketable or re- 
duced to culls, although probably not 
ruined for eating, as the cankers are only 
skin deep. It requires no extensive 
mathematical knowledge to discern that 
this disease may cause losses aggregating 
millions of dollars, if not eradicated. 

It must be admitted, on the other hand, 
that, after all, we may know but little 
about the effects of this disease. There 
has been no opportunity to observe it in 
larger trees bearing considerable quanti- 
ties of fruit. The fruit available was 
sent in by correspondents, and the writer 
himself found only one small specimen 
of grapefruit in the nursery at Monti- 
cello, but all of these had dozens of can- 
kers on the skin. The pomelo trees at 
Grand Bay, Wiggins, and Alvin had no 
fruit on them at the time of examination. 

While it is quite apparent that oranges 
are far less susceptible, it is also appar- 
ent that a large percent would become 
spotted and have to be sold as culls. The 
few fruits on a sweet orange tree at 
Port Arthur. Texas, previously referred 
to, indicate this. 

ORIGIN OF CITRUS CANKER. ^' 

The evidence at present indicates defi- 
nitely that it was imported from Japan 
on C. T. seedlings, and probably on other 
citrus. K. Saibara, of the Saibara Nur- 
series, Mobile, Alabama, stated that he 
saw the disease first, in 191 1, on trees 



FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



imported from Japan and planted in Tex- 
as, but had never seen it in Japan. W. 
C. Griffing, of Grand Bay, Alabama, first 
saw it on C. T. seedlings from Japan, in 
Texas. Mr. J. Klumb, Manager of the 
Mississippi Farms Company, of Wiggins, 
Mississippi, first saw it in 191 1 on C. T. 
seedlings imported from Japan. That all 
of this disease in Florida has not been 
sent to us directly from Texas is made 
clear in a letter just recently received from 
J. H. Giradeau, Jr., who imported the C. 
T. Seedlings for two of the infected 
plantings at Monticello. He writes : 'T 
remember the blocks of trifoli^ta stock 
you mention, and these were imported 
stock, directly from Japan." 

To what extent citrus canker is pre- 
^^ valent in Japan is not known. That it is 
there, was recently demonstrated beyond 
doubt by the receipt of specimens of this 
disease on leaf and rind of navel orange, 
directly from Japan. Professor B. F. 
Floyd, of the Florida Experiment Sta- 
tion, received these specimens during the 
middle of May, from a Japanese Plant 
Pathologist at the Kyu-shu Laboratory, 
Imperial Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Kumamoto, Japan. They were labeled 
"scab," indicating that citrus canker has 
hitherto been mistaken for citrus scab by 
the Japanese. That is exactly what hap- 
pened in this country — the first speci- 
mens of canker sent in were diagnosed as 
"scab;" and it was only when an abun- 
dance of material became available that 
the writer successfully prevailed in his be- 
lief that the disease was not citrus scab 
(Cladospbruwi citri). 



CAUSE OF CITRUS CANKER 

This has been recently determined by 
Professor H. E. Stevens, of the Florida 
Experiment Station, to be a fungus. 

THE SITUATION IN FLORIDA 

All the infected stock at Monticello, 
except a small isolated block, has been 
dug and piled ready to be burnt. The 
small isolated block just referred to has 
been cut back to stumps and sprayed with 
Bordeaux mixture under the writer's 
supervision, and the owners will spray it 
several times more. 

The infection at Silver Palm has been 
repeatedly treated with Bordeaux mix- 
ture, but some of the disease can still be 
found. Arrangements are being per- 
fected to cut back all this stock to single 
stems or stumps and paint it with 2-2-2 
Bordeaux, or 50 per cent, carbolinium. 

The Florida Growers and Shipper's 
League, of which Mr. Lloyd S. Tenny 
is Secretary-Manager, are raising 2,000 
dollars to assist in discovering new in- 
fections and to advise with the owners 
as to the proper methods to be employed 
for eradicating them. It is planned to 
place a regular deputy, under the direc- 
tion of this office, but paid by the League, 
in the field for this purpose. He will 
begin to make this inspection in south 
Dade County, and later in other parts of 
the State where infections are suspected. 

Shipment of citrus stock into Florida, 
from infected localities in the other Gulf 
States, have been made, and it is planned 
to look these up as soon as possible. At 
least two nurserymen in Alabama have 
furnished the writer with a list of their 
shipments into Florida during the past 
year or two. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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